Ask a Reporter archive (Read how New York Times reporters have answered students' frequently asked questions about such beats as international events, elections, education, science, technology, culture, religion, sports, and photography). See more Q. and A. | Times Reporters Answer Student Questions on the NY Times Learning Network (which is in process of designing something new to replace this).

Authonomy, publisher HarperCollins attempt to use online popularity as a guide to choosing which books from the slush pile to read. (The slush pile is unsolicited manuscripts, not represented by agents or asked for by editors.) In Is Authonomy Authentic?, Kate Eltham quotes others on whether HarperCollins site has moved from "potentially innovative to concretely exploitative," with its offer to publish titles from the online slush pile as POD books (for a fee).

How The Writer's Center Helped Me Get Published (Sonja Williams, Personal Reflections, First Person Plural, Writer's Center, 7-13-15) Sonja praises David Stewart and Ken Ackerman for their nonfiction workshops and critiques, among other things the WC offered to help her make the jump from academic prose to something for a broader market. She also praises C.M. Mayo for helping writers find their literary voice.

What advice do you give a writer? Mike Shatzkin writes: "...when we discussed with a leading agent a panel were planning for our January Digital Book World conference called 'Stalking the Wild Blogger: Scouting Blogs and Self-Published Content for Fresh Voices,'which is about agents and editors finding authors through blogs and self-published books, he said that is now something that 'every agent does.' He explained: 'it is now the standard way to find new clients.' That means that blogs and self-published books using ebook and print-on-demand models are now part of the overall commercial structure of publishing. They are not something separate and inferior, as 'vanity publishing' was in the past." ~ The Shatzkin File, 8-25-09

What Every Writer Needs to Know About Editors (listen to audio of literary agent Scott Edelstein, interviewed by Paulette Warren). Is your editor a friend, a partner, or an adversary? Why do so many editors not do what they say theyll do  or do it much later than they promised? How can you get editors attention in the first place? Most writers know the importance of having good working relationships with editors, but may not know how to go about establishing them. Scott explores writers most common misunderstandings about editors and provides advice to help make the most of the writer/​editor relationship.

Harlan Ellison, the Great Ranter, writer of "speculative fiction"Harlan Ellison: A Kind of Twisted Fantasy, Kurt Andersen's interview with Ellison on Studio 360 radio program (and check out the Bonus Track: "Harlan Ellison uncut")
http:/​/​www.studio360.org/​episodes/​2009/​05/​29Click here: http:/​/​www.sundancechannel.com/​digital-shorts/​#/​series/​20958611001/​20977196001 for readings and film clips starring Harlan Ellison, a series of Sundance "digital shorts (breakthrough Web videos for progressive minds)." Most ranters get boring; Ellison's rants are as verbally creative as his "speculative fiction."
BEGINNING WRITERS: In particular watch this one: Pay the Writer
http:/​/​www.sundancechannel.com/​digital-shorts/​#/​series/​20958611001/​20972302001"I have never written science fiction...What I write is a kind of twisted fantasy." ~ Harlan Ellison

"You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by."
~Mark Twain, Letter to Orion Clemens, 23 March 1878

"When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart."
~ Letter to D. W. Bowser, 20 March 1880 (as quoted on Mark Twain quotations site, from Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something - anything - down on paper. What Ive learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.
~ Anne Lamott, author of the excellent "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life"